Alone Again
by Eustacia
Summary: Post partings. Lorelai goes to Chris, but all they do is talk. Luke believes otherwise. When Lorelai figures out she's pregnant, Luke blows her off, not believing it's his.


Post partings, I own nothing.

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Lorelai felt devastated. She could not believe Luke had turned her down. She felt as if her entire world and her future were crumbling down around her. She had stood there, in the street, and declared her love for Luke for the whole town to hear. She was unloved, unwanted. Everyone told her that he had wanted her for years, on their first date he admitted as much. But clearly his feelings weren't all that strong. He didn't want to be with her now.

Lorelai could only think of one place to go. Someone that knew her history and her dreams. She really needed someone to talk to and Rory and Sookie were both unavailable tonight, she thought. She got in her car and headed to Christopher's. Afterall, she had just seen him earlier that night.

Meanwhile in the diner:

Luke continued to clean up and sweep the floors, closing the diner for the night. He was baffled. Lorelai had been avoiding him for a couple days and then out of nowhere she showed up and demanded he elope right that minute. Where did this come from, he wondered. She had said she had to go. Luke assumed that meant she was heading back to her place. He decided he would head over there and try to calm her down and get the real story after he finished closing the diner.

He walked up the driveway to Lorelai's place and noticed the missing Jeep. He stepped up to the front door and knocked anyway. As expected, he got no response. He tried the doorknob, and also as expected, the door opened.

"Lorelai?" He didn't hear anything or see any evidence that she was in the house and so decided that he would simply get ready for bed and talk to her when she returned in hopes they could figure out some things before they went to sleep. He hadn't spent many nights over here lately he realized, and thought perhaps that was part of the problem.

"Well, I'm here now. C'mon Lorelai, come home so I can fix this."

He got a pot of coffee started for her so it would be ready when she got back. He sat down on the couch and flipped through the tv channels looking for something to watch while he waited.

At Christopher's:

It was now three o'clock in the morning and Chris and Lorelai had been up all night talking. She broke down and told him about her ill-fated ultimatum to Luke and how she felt her whole future, her middle, was disappearing. Although Chris badly wanted to comfort her in more ways than one, he knew that he could never compare to Luke and so decided to be the friend she clearly needed. He was her oldest friend, he figured it was about time he started acting like it. He rubbed her back as she cried and told her that maybe Luke just needed some time to think things through, that as a guy, finding out you're a father can be a bit of a shock. Chris could only imagine the sudden appearance of a twelve year old would have rocked Luke's well ordered little universe. Lorelai talked about her desire to have more children, with Luke being the father and how she had thought she had found her perfect match. When she spoke of how much Luke understood her, knew her habits, her insecurities and her dreams, Chris knew for sure that he would never have a place in Lorelai's heart. Her heart belonged to the diner man back in her small little town, and Luke didn't even seem to realize that he had her whole heart. Chris knew what a precious gift that was, to be given all of Lorelai. She had always held part of herself back from him.

"Lore, are you spending the night? You can take my bed, I'll sleep on the couch."

"No thanks Chris, I think I'm just gonna head back to the hollow. I'm too distracted to sleep anyway."

"If you're distracted then you shouldn't be driving Lore, c'mon, stay the night," he implored.

"No, I wanna go home. It's been a really long and awful day. I'm just gonna crawl into my own bed and pretend this day never happened. But thanks Chris, really. Talking about it actually helped. I am going to try and tell Luke what I told you when I see him." She gave him a hug and gathered her things to head back outside to her Jeep, intent on really talking things through with Luke when she saw him tomorrow.

Luke had eventually made his way upstairs to "their" bedroom to wait and had fallen asleep. He was awoken by the sound of the front door opening and closing. He rolled over to look at the clock on the night stand and saw that it was five o'clock in the morning. He layed in the bed, wondering where on earth she had gone that she was just now returning. He knew she wasn't at Sookie's, he had called her around 11 o'clock and Sookie said she hadn't seen her.

His thoughts were interrupted as she came in the bedroom door and turned on the light, not realizing Luke was there.

"Aarrrggghhh," he grumbled at the sudden brightness in the room.

"Aaaaahhhh!!!!" Lorelai screamed, not expecting anyone to be in her bedroom. Her hand still on her chest in fear, she glanced in disbelief at her bed. She was relieved, Luke had come! He had come to their bed and waited for her. He hadn't spent the night in this bed in over a month. Maybe Chris had been right, she thought. Maybe Luke did love her and just needed some time. While these thoughts ran through her head, she remained just inside the doorway staring at Luke.

Luke was concerned. She was still in her dress from last night.

"Where have you been?!" he asked somewhat harshly.

Shocked by his tone, she answered without really thinking about the implications and conclusions he may draw from what she said.

"I was at Christopher's place."

The reaction was immediate. He sat upright in the bed and threw off the covers. He started his rant as he began gathering his clothes and putting them on.

"Christopher?!?! You went to Christophers and spent all night there, that's great Lorelai! I say I can't jump and so you jump…right into his waiting arms!! Glad to know I can be replaced so quickly. Well good luck with that deadbeat, I'm out!" He stormed out of the room and out of the house.

Lorelai couldn't believe this. She ran down the stairs after him, flinging open the front door, "LUKE!!"

"Luke!" she said as she tried to run after him. In his anger and perceived betrayal he was practically running back to the sanctuary of his diner. "Luke! We just talked, that's it!"

He stopped and quickly turned around to face her approaching form. "Do you expect me to believe that? How many times have I listened to you lament about Chris and how you'd like to be a family with him and Rory. He's always in the back of your mind when you're dating other guys. I've heard you crying over him more times than I can count. And you always sleep with him every time he shows up."

He didn't get to finish his rant, Lorelai slapped him hard across the cheek. "You take that back" she said with teary eyes.

"The truth hurts doesn't it." He walked into the diner and locked the door behind him. He had always been insecure about Christopher. She had so much history with him, not to mention a child. He always feared that at the first major bump in the road, she would turn to him, and she had.

A few weeks went by in which Lorelai made a couple attempts to talk to Luke and was shut out. He gave her the silent treatment, reminiscent of their fight after Jess and Rory got in a car accident. She couldn't handle it. The town was divided, some believing she had cheated on him and others sure she would never consider doing that to Luke. Lorelai decided that she needed to relocate. She still worked at the Dragonfly, but started staying a couple towns away, where nobody knew her. Her commute was of course now longer, about 45 minutes each direction, but the peace she got while renting a small one bedroom apartment was well worth it. She just couldn't deal with the nosy town, especially being neighbors with Babette. Sookie and Rory knew where she was staying and were supportive. They felt it was only temporary and Lorelai would eventually recover and move back into the Crap Shack.

Lorelai had been living with this arrangement for about a month when she started noticing small things, changes in herself. She had started eating healthier, not as a conscious decision, but rather she just craved the healthier foods whenever she was shopping in the large grocery store in her own town of Canaan. She also started to gain a little weight, even though she had been eating healthier. What really did it for her though, was when she realized she hadn't needed any tampons for a couple months. She thought about it and thought maybe it had been the stress. But she bought a pregnancy test the next time she went to the store just to make sure. That would explain the healthier foods and weight gain. She tried not to dwell on the thought that she may be pregnant, she didn't even want to think about it until she found out for sure.

When she got back to her apartment she went directly to the bathroom and followed the directions for the test. She sat on the toilet while she waited the five minutes required to get accurate results. She thought about Rory and how she would be making her own way on the world soon, she thought about Sookie and Michel, anything to make the time go a little faster.

She glanced at her watch and noted that five minutes had passed.

"Here goes nothing," she commented as she reached for the stick on the counter.

"Crap."

She sat in shock for several minutes before calling Sookie who rushed right over. Lorelai was crying when Sookie knocked and came inside.

"Hey sweetie, what's wrong?" Sookie asks while reaching to embrace her friend.

Lorelai simply handed the stick to Sookie.

Sookie gasped, "No! Is this what I think it is? Well of course it is, I've taken two of these in last couple years."

Lorelai simply nodded her head and continued to cry.

"Are you gonna tell Luke?" Sookie asked.

"Well…I kinda have to don't I? Especially after April, I have to tell him…oh god!" Lorelai cried.

"We'll all be here for you sweetie. Are you going to move back into the Crap Shack now? Then you'd be closer, I could help out a bit more."

"We'll see how Luke reacts first I guess. He seemed pretty adamant about being "all out", plus he probably won't even talk to me. He still thinks I slept with Chris…I didn't though, I'm not sure what else I can do to convince him of that" Lorelai stated sadly.

"Maybe this will open his eyes," Sookie said hopefully.

The two women talked the rest of the day. Sookie made some dinner for Lorelai and then promised to see her tomorrow at the Inn. Lorelai paced her living room, trying to decide how she would tell Luke. She decided she would just go to the diner and tell him, no skirting around the subject, just come right out and say it. With that decision made, she made her way to bed and slept fitfully. She was overwhelmed with the different directions her life could be taking within the next couple days. Either Luke would listen to her and they could begin to mend the issues or he would not even let her in the diner and she'd be on her own. A single mom. Again. Morning came all too early.

Luke tried to move on with his life. The love of his life had cheated on him and he wasn't sure how to move on, but not having to see Lorelai multiple times a day in his diner helped. In his mind, her not continuing to fight for him proved her guilt. He didn't think she had tried all that hard to convince him of her innocence, and therefore she must be guilty. He had avoided attending any town meetings since he dumped her, not wanting to deal with the painful, knife in the back, feeling he got whenever he thought about her. Kirk had of course taken his side and oddly enough, so had Taylor. Taylor never talked about her to Luke, except to say that she never had a good track record with relationships. Somehow word had never gotten to Luke that Lorelai had moved to another town, he was just glad he didn't have to constantly see her around town and figured his strategic plans of when to shop for groceries at Doose's had been successful in helping him avoid her.

As he had been thus far successful in his avoidance, it was a shock to look up upon exiting the diner to take out a bag of trash and see a teary eyed Lorelai standing there. The feelings of betrayal resurfaced immediately and he couldn't control what came out of his mouth.

"What do you want?" he asked harshly.

She stood there, debating if she could tell him or not, with as harsh a reception as she was receiving.

"Lorelai, I don't have time for this, what are you doing here?"

She took a breath and just went for it. "I'm pregnant," she said quietly as tears started running down her cheeks. She waited for his response.

"Is this where you come to me and complain about your life again? I don't want to hear it. You made your choice, now live with it. Have a nice life with Christopher."

He threw the bag of trash towards the dumpster and headed around her and back into the diner. He threw her one last harsh glare and then closed and locked the diner door. He headed up to his apartment, angry at her for having the audacity to come to him about her pregnancy with the man she cheated on him with. How dare she, he thought. He went to the window and looked down to the sidewalk, his curiosity getting the better of him. He wanted her to feel betrayed, just as he did. He saw her standing there with more tears rolling down her face. She slowly turned and headed to her Jeep that he just now noticed was parked across the street. He watched her get in and start the car, half slumped over the wheel with her shoulders shaking from her crying. Part of him felt bad, but another part felt that this was what he needed to finally get over her. He walked away from the window and got ready for bed. He had early deliveries tomorrow.

Lorelai drove in a daze back to her apartment. She fell into her bed and cried herself to sleep, scared of being a single parent all over again.


End file.
